PJ Lifestyle » David Steinberghttp://pjmedia.com/lifestyle
Because there's more to life than arguing about politicsSun, 02 Aug 2015 09:49:48 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.8.1I Make 82% on my Money with This One Weird Third-String Point Guard!http://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2014/12/08/i-make-82-on-my-money-with-this-one-weird-third-string-point-guard/
http://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2014/12/08/i-make-82-on-my-money-with-this-one-weird-third-string-point-guard/#commentsMon, 08 Dec 2014 18:40:17 +0000http://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/?p=99592

A few days before Thanksgiving, I read this NY Post article titled “The Men Who Make 6 Figures Off Fantasy Football“; I probably clicked on it for the same reason Buzzfeed exists. The piece showcased several dudes looking nouveau-riche, one sharing accounts of all the money he’s earned while posing with stuff he hasn’t bought. Mark Giundi poses in a pinstriped suit with an unlit cigar and a tumbler of whiskey; his caption reads: “Styling by Mindy Saad, Sienna blue stripe suit, $779 at … “, etc.:

“This eyebrow ain’t gonna pluck itself, people.”

The article described the relatively new gambling phenomenon of “Daily Fantasy Sports,” wherein entrants get to pick an entirely new team of fantasy athletes for each day’s slate of games, and to enter and close several bets each day. This contrasts with traditional fantasy sports gambling, which generally involves sticking with a team in a league over an entire season, a more time-intensive and likely less-lucrative commitment.

Daily Fantasy Sports, because of the in-and-out nature, has more of an appeal the way dropping 25 bucks on a game does when you happen to be in a casino for the night. It’s a lot closer to gambling the way most people are comfortable with gambling, rather than the hobby that traditional fantasy sports must be. Personally, I would never consider traditional fantasy sports, but Daily Fantasy Sports sounded like a reasonably fun way to spend an otherwise uneventful evening, just like a night at the craps table.

It is nothing like a casino chance game, however; the better analogy than craps would be poker. Daily Fantasy Sports is a skill competition, not an inevitable loss to the rules of probability. The Feds agree: the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 allows for online fantasy sports. (Though conversely, it does happen to outlaw online poker.)

On Thanksgiving, I put down seven bucks on FanDuel.com, currently the industry leader. I had to pick a quarterback, two running backs, three wide receivers, a tight end, a kicker, and one team’s entire defense. All the picks had to come from the three Thanksgiving Day games: Detroit vs. Chicago, Dallas vs. Philadelphia, and San Francisco vs. Seattle. The bet allowed for 1277 entries. Winnings would be paid out according to the following formula:

1st : $777.00

2nd : $350.00

3rd : $210.00

4th : $140.00

5th : $105.00

6th : $84.00

7th – 11th : $77.00

12th – 16th : $70.00

17th – 21st : $63.00

22nd – 31st : $56.00

32nd – 41st : $49.00

42nd – 61st : $42.00

62nd – 81st : $35.00

82nd – 101st : $28.00

102nd – 152nd : $21.00

153rd – 212nd : $14.00

Somehow, I spent most of the day in first place; I got knocked down to fourth when San Francisco didn’t manage to score a touchdown the entire game and entrants who had selected Seattle’s defense jumped ahead of me. Still, I was intrigued, as any gambling novice or heroin addict might be when he scores the good stuff the first time out.

I wanted to know the actual returns I was capable of producing over a large-enough sample size. As a skill game, if one obeyed the math, could Daily Fantasy Sports be a more lucrative — or even safer — place for one’s cash than stocks, or that .3% yield you’re getting on a CD thanks to quantitative easing?

Two weeks later, the answer is an unsettling “absolutely.” My calculated expected return seems too good to be true, and my risk of loss improbably small.

In this installment, legendary powerlifting coach Mark Rippetoe discusses the benefits of a technique that the fitness industry generally considers to be dangerous, despite such advocates not having presented even a single incident of injury with this technique as causation.

For each rep of the squat, Rippetoe teaches the Valsalva maneuver: take a huge breath, and hold it until you’ve finished the rep. The recommendation to breathe in on the decline and out on the way up, which you’ve likely been taught at some point, has no evidentiary basis. Further, with a few reps of experimentation on your own, you will quickly notice a more rigid, safer back — and more weight being moved — when holding a deep breath.

Rippetoe also finishes up the squat video series with a note about the exercise: the squat is quite a complex exercise when taught properly. But if you want to reach your strength goals, you do need to squat properly — and so you are going to need a visit with a qualified coach:

Prior to working with Coach Mark Rippetoe, I’d have recommended the budget route to acquaintances interested in strength training: get all the information you can online, as much of it is excellent quality and all you need to know; then, get yourself to a squat rack.

I will no longer give that advice. I would enthusiastically recommend a number of online educational courses and how-tos for folks interested in a wide range of activities, but for strength training, you simply need to schedule a visit with the most esteemed coach you can find. Taking up a language, or learning calculus? Online options are arguably superior. But I regret the several years of time wasted, lumbar discs damaged, and stalled progress because I didn’t call up Rippetoe sooner. Getting immediate feedback from an expert eye critiquing every rep is worth the expense.

In this installment, recorded during a visit from Rippetoe and two members of his coaching team — John Petrizzo and Nicholas D’Agostino – to my lifting partner’s home gym, Rippetoe shared a tremendous amount of technical knowledge that I simply never noticed via training on my own, even with the use of video. And the results since this visit, which I will report in a future post, have been excellent.

Click to the following page to watch the video “The Squat, Part Two.” Topics covered:

Hand placement: Ideally, you want thumbs on top of the bar, wrists neutral, elbows up. You can progress without this, but it’s the best configuration for keeping the bar where it needs to be without causing wrist strain.

Back angle: As in Part One, Rippetoe explains the primacy of back angle. You need to be more horizontal to get the load on your hips instead of your knees. Think about exiting the hole with your hips first. Everything else taught here is secondary.

Rippetoe points out why the squat is a hips movement — and why it’s safe for your knees — by pointing out the difference in the “moment arm” for each joint. Simply, the hips are much further from your center of gravity.

Knee position: Most people will see their knees slightly ahead of their toes at the bottom of the squat. And the bottom of the squat is hips below knees, otherwise the rear muscle chain doesn’t get fully utilized.

Forget your rack: Want to get stronger? Never give up on a rep because you know you can safely fail by dropping the bar on the pins. You need to figure out what max effort actually feels like, mentally and physically.

After spending a few hours with Mark Rippetoe and two members of his coaching team — John Petrizzo and Nicholas D’Agostino — I’ve learned that online strength training information, though often of high quality, takes a distant second to an in-person session from a top-notch coach. And you simply cannot find one at a corporate gym. Maybe you have found one, or thought you had, but my experience from this project has been that years, dollars, and perhaps time spent recovering from injuries could have been saved had I originally sought out the advice considered to be the best by those who train for a living.

For more detail on that, I asked Petrizzo why he was drawn to Rippetoe’s methods and chose to become an affiliated coach:

All through high school and college I read everything I could get my hands on in regards to training for enhanced strength and athletic performance. Starting Strength stood out. I had never seen a comparable level of analysis applied to the barbell lifts in terms of their application and execution. Prior to SS, everything I had read in regards to lifting technique was merely the author’s opinion. I had never read anything that applied a sound biomechanical rationale for every aspect of the movements included in the program, and why they should be coached and taught in the manner they were presented in the book.

This was sorely lacking in my formal undergraduate education as an Exercise Science major.

Coach Rippetoe has been writing introductory strength training articles for PJ Media this year. I called him to suggest we do a “video coaching” project, wherein I would follow the advice from his Starting Strength, record each training session, and then send him the video to critique. He didn’t like that idea, explaining that top-level coaching needs to occur in-person.

A few weeks later, Rippetoe, two coaches, and a cameraman were in my lifting partner’s basement gym, showing us everything we’ve been doing wrong all these years.

There’s a reason potential Olympians move to Colorado Springs, and why talented youth tennis players move to Florida. Serious improvement comes from a trained eye watching your every move, giving immediate and correct feedback. This doesn’t happen online, and the trained eyes who can do this at the highest level are few. The difference between Rippetoe, his colleagues, and every other trainer I have worked with? They are meticulous: they always noticed flaws immediately, they gave me the proper fix, and I felt an immediate improvement in performance. If you want improve your strength for any reason — the best being long-term well-being — then you should consider a visit with the best.

We’re breaking the video from that training session into five parts, which we will publish over the next few weeks at PJ Lifestyle. On the following page is the first video: “The Squat, Part One.” Topics covered:

Weight gain: As Rippetoe has previously covered here, the big, strong guy is both self-sufficient and healthier than the waif. You need to eat if you want to get consistently stronger on a strength program — sometimes those plateaus occur from an insufficient diet. What kind of weight gain might someone pursuing greater strength expect?

Foot placement: How far apart, and at what angle?

Back angle: Rippetoe displays, with a simple hands-on test, that a less vertical back angle instantly helps you move more weight.

Eyes on the floor: With another simple test, Rippetoe shows that the typical eyes-forward squat taught by corporate gyms represents weaker positioning.

Bar placement: You are probably placing the bar too high on your back, which can lead to that more vertical back angle. Dropping it down — where it doesn’t feel so comfortable at first — shortens the lever and gives you a mechanical advantage over the high bar position.

Rip was a competitive powerlifter himself for ten years, and has since coached many lifters and athletes and given seminars to thousands around the country.

Mark will be answering questions live from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. EST. Ask Mark anything — from beginner to elite level topics — by submitting a comment to this article.

For more background information: Rippetoe has been writing a series of excellently received, introductory-level strength training articles for PJ Media lately. His articles are drawing hundreds of thousands of readers. If you haven’t seen them yet, click on the below links to get yourself up to speed — some of your questions may already have been answered by Mark, either in the articles or the comments:

Be sure to check out all of Mark’s Amazon book pages, linked above. And if you’re ready to set up that garage gym, check out the Burgener and Rippetoe Barbell. It’s designed to Mark’s specifications, and is now available at Rogue Fitness.

Colorado’s Noah Hoffman competed in the skiathlon event this weekend, a new event consisting of 15K of classic cross-country skiing technique and 15K of freestyle. All told, it’s just over an hour of pain for world-class skiers.

Hoffman looked strong during the classic portion, staying just a few seconds behind the lead pace, until he crashed on a curve — and broke one of his poles. He eventually received a replacement, but he had lost too much time to compete for a medal.

The fall was the last a television viewer would see of Hoffman for about 45 minutes, until a huffing, driving, navy blue Team U.S.A. uniform made the turn for the final 100-meter stretch to the finish. Below, about 15 feet from the line, that blurred figure is Hoffman, giving it everything he’s got to pass one more not-as-driven competitor:

Hoffman pushed himself right to the finish line … so he could finish 35th instead of 36th. No one else in that picture had as much heart in the game as he did.

Hoffman caught them all after skiing part of the race with one pole, for goodness sake, and I can’t even figure how that worked. Maybe he held it with two hands and pushed between his legs, or something.

Coloradoans: when Hoffman gets back home, see to it that he doesn’t pay for his own beer.

The stuff we gravitate towards as our personal means of “getting fit” is often as pointless as rallying around other faulty belief systems — like Scientology, or “the Cubs.” Lost in the fray of strength training, lifestyle coaches, and Zumba! — and essentially lost since the development of agriculture changed our lifestyles — was the obvious regarding fitness: namely, that you are a human. Before you focus on anything extraneous like your golf swing, you should make sure you can do what a human is made to do.

Otherwise, you are a time bomb for injury and preventable surgery, and for difficult golden years.

My three-year-old son loves the Bronx Zoo, but not so much the stroller. So I carry him a lot, either on my shoulders or in my arms. Any parent knows what a day of that can be like — note how many are clutching their lower backs or rubbing their necks after packing up the car to leave, even the ones who are just worn out from a day pushing the stroller.

As a contrast, note that while at the zoo, you never saw, say, a lemur clutching its hammy, or yelling the lemur equivalent of: “F***! Cramp!” while trying to extend his toes.

Kelly Starrett’s Becoming a Supple Leopard – he’s a Northern California dude, the title and tone of the book is best understood if familiar with his video clip site, MobilityWOD.com — fills a huge void in fitness publications. Starrett focuses on the universal need, capability for, and benefit of proper human movement, and provides tips, tests, and benchmarks for reaching your full range of motion, and thus your physical potential.

I’ll call it the most useful fitness book ever written, and endorse it without reservation. (Full disclosure: I once interviewed Starrett for a Men’s Journal piece, and I am otherwise inclined to say nice things about him, since a tip he gave me a couple years ago allowed me to serve a tennis ball again without pain. But that tip is included on page 266 of the book — presumably I’d find it in there if I did not previously know him. And frankly, I’d recommend the book on that tip alone, as it provided instant relief and allowed me to stay on the court.)

This is not a manual written for either beginners or experienced athletes; it should be useful for most everyone, as few at any level of athletic ability have this base of knowledge. As primary as this topic is to general health and wellness, the dearth of information is just as conspicuous. Leopard could improve great-grandma’s quality of life as readily as it could have lessened the chances of Kobe’s Achilles tear, or Derek Rose’s shredded ACL. Further, Kobe might have been jumping a couple inches higher, defending the ball a split-second faster all these years, and as a result of the more efficient movement, might have kept his knees and ankles younger.

The heart of the book — useful to anyone who participates in the activities of walking, standing, or even sitting — is Chapter 2: Midline Stabilization and Organization. Everyone knows “keep your back straight,” and “squeeze your abs,” and commitment to those simple tips will save you a bit of pain and trouble. But you can do significantly better, and you will notice immediate results while doing something no more complicated than not lying down.

The majority of activities people are accustomed to doing at a gym are neither efficient means of getting fitter nor particularly safe. A typical trainer at a typical gym is now a terrible investment, both for your fitness level and because elite-level training information is freely available online. There is no substitute for an actual qualified trainer at a quality gym, both in instruction and motivation, yet you can do great things for yourself on your own, with a computer. Charlie’s PJ Lifestyle entries strike me as a good opportunity to demonstrate this; he’s agreed to be somewhat of a lab rat.)

—————————

In addition to the other contributions that make your daily life more productive, Steve Jobs — and the competitors he dragged with him — inadvertently revolutionized fitness and sports training by jamming a powerful camera into your phone. Those hours you spent as a kid practicing your jumper, your pitching motion, Bobby Brown’s culturally significant dance moves, etc. could have been fantastically more productive had you been able to work with the instant feedback of video.

If familiar with the nascent study of human expertise — most folks aware of it were exposed via Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers; the field is led by scientist K. Anders Ericcson — you may recall the conclusion that an average of “10,000 hours” of “deliberate practice” is generally required to gain such skill in any endeavor. What cheap, available video does: it makes the “immediate feedback” component of deliberate practice profoundly more accessible.

I asked Charlie to send me video of him doing a few reps of what we’ve discussed as the “Core Curriculum” of human movement: the squat, the deadlift, and the press. The point is to see what range of motion he currently has, both in the interest of injury prevention and for discussing the significant advantage that good technique will give you as an athlete. (As taught at a Crossfit Level 1 Trainer Certification, technique equals strength. A correction here and there makes you stronger without additional training.)

Here’s the video. I’ll tell you the basics of what I’m seeing, feel free to weigh in if you notice anything else. Like, say, a cat:

His deadlift: His lower back is not rounding to compensate for a lack of mobility in the hips, which typically is great — if you are going to get hurt deadlifting, it will probably be from your lower back rounding while under load. But: we can’t quite tell if he does have sufficient hip mobility, because the upper back is compensating quite a bit. Considering Charlie, like everybody, is at a computer all day, he needs to focus on being able to get those shoulder blades back and down so he can get his spine into a strong position. You want that spine nice and straight, tailbone as far as possible from the crown of your head, and you don’t want to lose any of that positioning during the movement.

His (front) squat: Charlie apparently does have pretty limber hips. Any upper body mobility issues aren’t masking anything with this movement. He can get his hips below his knees, which counts as a full squat, without anything horrible happening in his lower back. Also — from the front view, his knees do not buckle inwards towards each other at all, another common fault.

His swing: The swing is pretty close to a deadlift, I would give the same notes as above.

His press: There it is. An efficient press would complete with the arms vertical — Charlie’s arms are leaning forward at the top of the movement. Imagine he’s got 150 pounds up there: he will either start to topple forward, or he will need to work much harder to not do so. When you can’t get your arms vertical, your muscles need to do work that your skeleton is prepared to handle.

To safely and efficiently do the key functional movements of a human body, Charlie should focus his efforts on getting those shoulders freed up. For next week, we’ll look at some strategies for doing that.

The majority of activities people are accustomed to doing at a gym are neither efficient means of getting fitter nor particularly safe. A typical trainer at a typical gym is now a terrible investment, both for your fitness level and because elite-level training information is freely available online. There is no substitute for an actual qualified trainer at a quality gym, both in instruction and motivation, yet you can do great things for yourself on your own, with a computer. Charlie’s PJ Lifestyle entries strike me as a good opportunity to demonstrate this; he’s agreed to be somewhat of a lab rat.)

——————————

Last week I preached the Gospel of the Squat, the movement that: a) would save humanity from much lower back and knee dysfunction; b) would be as familiar as running (which most of us do incorrectly as well) without our cultural reliance on butt-sitting; and c) done exclusively as an exercise program, would just about suffice to make you fit without trying any other exercise. This week, I’m moving on to …

Nah, I’m going to talk about squats more.

But different squats: these next two movements are as genetically determined as the Air Squat, but include the added dimension of things, which people are designed to handle. Your frame is built to carry external objects, a necessary survival function. For an opposing example, look at, say, a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Those little arms were vestigial, not intended to do much of anything. You, however, are made to hold stuff.

The Air Squat is how a human raises and lowers his center of gravity. Our new exercises:

1. The Front Squat is how a human raises and lowers his center of gravity while holding an object in front of him, like a slaughtered antelope, or a laundry basket.

2. The Overhead Squat is how a human would do the same with an object overhead. It happens less often, but your shoulder girdle is specifically built to handle weight overhead.

(Also, there is the Back Squat, which most are familiar with. You can handle the most weight with the Back Squat; it is the best movement of the three for building strength. Technique-wise, though, it is essentially the same as the Air Squat, which we’ve already discussed. Also, it is the least likely position that a human would be holding weight, since the arms are mostly out of the picture.)

The benefits of the Front Squat and the Overhead Squat extend far beyond strength. Most fascinating to me: the movements themselves provide elegant, circular answers to questions regarding balance and mobility. (Most use the term “flexibility”. “Mobility” is more accurate as it implies a purpose for having flexibility).

The specific questions which the Front and Overhead Squats answer, by merely existing:

Why should I get more mobility?

How much mobility do I need?

Why do I need to get better balance?

How much balance do I need?

If balance and mobility are important, what is the best way to get there?

Over the past couple decades, yoga — and to a slightly lesser extent, Pilates — gained the upper hand as gold standard exercise activity for gaining balance and mobility. Why? Well, because being good at yoga and Pilates requires lots of balance and mobility, and doing yoga and Pilates will give you better balance and mobility.

So what’s the problem? The problem is that being good at yoga and Pilates essentially means only that: you are good at yoga and Pilates.

As mentioned in Week Two, fitness is — among other things — about being prepared for whatever life throws at a human body, which is why a human body looks like a human body to begin with, and not like a platypus.

You don’t have legs so that they can get into Warrior Three pose. Warrior Three pose is just something you happen to be able to get into.

This is not an indictment of yoga and Pilates — indeed, I could make the same argument regarding throwing a baseball, and I would never imply that throwing a baseball is a pointless activity. (Even thinking that makes me a bit sad.) What I’m implying is that yoga and Pilates and baseball should all be thought of as sports, as part of an active life, and not as activities to get you fit.

The majority of activities people are accustomed to doing at a gym are neither efficient means of getting fitter nor particularly safe. A typical trainer at a typical gym is now a terrible investment, both for your fitness level and because elite-level training information is freely available online. There is no substitute for an actual qualified trainer at a quality gym, both in instruction and motivation, yet you can do great things for yourself on your own, with a computer. Charlie’s PJ Lifestyle entries strike me as a good opportunity to demonstrate this; he’s agreed to be somewhat of a lab rat.)

In Week One, I asked Charlie to tell me about any old injuries, ailments, etc. that he might have and which could be a detriment requiring a workaround while exercising. Here’s Charlie’s answer — it isn’t so much that he has some nagging pains, but that the first 53 years of his life were an extended prison beating:

The only big joints I haven’t injured somehow are my left ankle and right shoulder. Poorly resolved fractured right ankle, meniscus surgery medial side right knee, plus painful knees (right knee today) consequent to tight IT band syndrome, lower back injury in car wreck, two whiplash injuries in car wrecks, chronic RSI from typing too much, left shoulder separation in martial arts tournament.

Charlie’s medical records also show that in 1983 he took a shiv to the lung from a fellow named “White Power Bill”, but Charlie thought that not relevant to a mobility question.

Physically and psychologically, injuries can become an overwhelming discouragement from participating in a fitness regimen. My worst was a ruptured disc in my lower back that I chose not to treat with anything besides time; I had sciatica pain down my left leg for over a year and still get twinges now. But here’s the thing, and don’t just take it from me (Seriously, as I mentioned in Week One, do not just take it from me. I have a Crossfit Trainer’s Certificate, but it is currently inactive, and my attorney wife does not specialize in liability claims. Take it from this guy, a friend and brilliant Physical Therapy PhD): your body is obviously healthier when it moves. Exercise releases a rush of great stuff that encourages healing. And despite the psychological barrier of not being able to move the way you want to, either temporarily or permanently, if you haven’t — G-d forbid — suffered a catastrophic paralyzing injury, then exercising is still an activity for you.

An example: my wife had surgery to repair a torn ankle ligament about ten days ago. Nine days ago, we went to the gym together. This Monday, in a walking boot, we did this workout together: 5 One-legged squats, 10 pushups (from her knees), 15 situps — as many rounds of that triplet as possible in 15 minutes. She was working harder than anyone else in the gym, without using one leg from the knee down.

Further, that leg, according to the science, is going to improve more rapidly because the rest of her body was being healthy — all the good chemicals a workout releases head to the bum leg, too. (Kelly Starrett, the trainer linked above, cited a study noting a 30% increase in the immobilized limb’s muscle mass due to the rest of the body doing work.)

So whatever’s wrong with you, Charlie: do your research, come up with a plan for your body, and get moving. Injuries don’t mean the end of your physical activity. Fight for yourself, which you’ve already been doing.

The plan should start with gaining competence with the basic functional movements, the ones a human is designed to do: raising and lowering your center of gravity (the squat); picking things up (the deadlift); and pushing things (the press). Whether you’re young and pain-free, 95 years old, or recently bludgeoned with a pipe, you should start by figuring out what your body’s “ceiling” for those movements is, and work towards that.

In Week One, I also asked Charlie to make videos of himself from the side of him trying to do a proper air squat, and then of him doing a proper deadlift and a proper shoulder press with no weight besides a broomstick or PVC pipe.

These are the primary functional movements of the body, and should be the core of every human’s fitness program. And yes — there is a proper definition of “functional” exercise.

Perhaps, at your gym, you ran into Trainer Brad from Newark, who had you balance on your knees on a giant bouncy ball while doing dumbbell shoulder raises with one arm, because he said it was “functional”. Brad was incorrect, and possibly a clown fetishist with a closet of discreetly videotaped clients.

People: you are not Cirque du Soleil sea lions. If that stuff is “functional”, than anything can be called “functional”. This would be like some 31-year-old affluent perma-student declaring a “right” to free birth control. (Bad example, I’ll come up with something more plausible.)

Rather than expand on the full, elegant definition of “functional”, I’ll describe the piece of the definition that I’ve noted tends to elicit an “ahhhhh!” from the newbies, and gets them interested in learning more, and this is why I asked Charlie to send the videos. Let’s start with the squat: why is the squat so important, and what does a healthy range of motion for the squat look like?

Again, you are not a sea lion. Your body looks like a human body primarily so you can walk, run, and raise or lower yourself, because that’s what you had to do back then to survive. And you were most definitely not designed to rest by sitting in a chair, you were designed to rest in a deep squat.